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At least 757 records · Page 42

Molecular dynamics study of silicon atomic layer etching by chlorine gas and argon ions

Classical molecular dynamics (MD) is used to simulate atomic layer etching processes of silicon by alternating exposure to chlorine gas and argon ions. In order to validate our model, a rigorous comparison is done with ion beam experiments found in the literature [Park et al., Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 44, 389 (2005)]. Here it is shown that the etch per cycle (EPC) as a function of argon ion energy from simulations is in quantitative agreement with experimental results if the correct argon ion fluence is used in the simulations. The EPC as a function of ion irradiation time and amount of chlorine exposure also show good agreement with the experiment. The MD simulations also show the formation of an amorphous silicon region with chlorine atoms mixed uniformly throughout following ion bombardment. Finally, the etch products during the ion irradiation step are analyzed and discussed.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗

Promoting CO 2 Release from CO 3 2- -Containing Solvents during Water Electrolysis for Direct Air Capture

The pH swings from water electrolysis are leveraged to condition OH – -based facile CO 2 capture solvents using an electrochemical flow cell for direct air capture (DAC). Besides demonstrating the DAC using a membrane contactor, promoting CO 2 release from a CO 3 2– solution at the anode is specifically studied by adjusting the volumetric flow rate, anode chamber volume, residence time, and K 2 CO 3 concentration. Through case-by-case comparisons coupled with modeled results, increasing current, reducing volumetric flow rate, and/or reducing CO 3 2– concentration are the effective methods to promote CO 2 release from a CO 3 2– -containing solvent, whereas enlarging the anode chamber volume poses a minor effect. Moreover, the discrepancies between the experimental and modeled results may be caused by H + crossover rather than K + transport through the Nafion membrane during water electrolysis based upon the total alkalinity measurements for the K 2 CO 3 solutions gleaned from the anode. Here, it is believed that such results will provide guidance to design and operate an electrochemical flow cell for electrochemistry-assisted DAC and point source CO 2 capture.

20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS↗

Seismic Tomography 2024

Seismic tomography is the most abundant source of information about the internal structure of the Earth at scales ranging from a few meters to thousands of kilometers. It constrains the properties of active volcanoes, earthquake fault zones, deep reservoirs and storage sites, glaciers and ice sheets, or the entire globe. It contributes to outstanding societal problems related to natural hazards, resource exploration, underground storage, and many more. The recent advances in seismic tomography are being translated to nondestructive testing, medical ultrasound, and helioseismology. Nearly 50 yr after its first successful applications, this article offers a snapshot of modern seismic tomography. Focused on major challenges and particularly promising research directions, it is intended to guide both Earth science professionals and early-career scientists. The individual contributions by the coauthors provide diverse perspectives on topics that may at first seem disconnected but are closely tied together by a few coherent threads: multiparameter inversion for properties related to dynamic processes, data quality, and geographic coverage, uncertainty quantification that is useful for geologic interpretation, new formulations of tomographic inverse problems that address concrete geologic questions more directly, and the presentation and quantitative comparison of tomographic models. Finally, it remains to be seen which of these problems will be considered solved, solved to some extent, or practically unsolvable over the next decade.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Fast Adaptive Neural Control of Resonant Extraction at Fermilab

We present progress on the development of a machine learning (ML) regulation system for third-order resonant extraction of the beam delivered to the Mu2e experiment at Fermilab. We consider classical and ML-based controllers optimized on semi-analytic simulations and provide performance comparisons for several models. Additionally, we discuss the efficiency of each model in training, which has implications for future work on adaptive control. We also discuss progress on developing optimized implementations of ML models for edge-based inference.

Whitbeck, A. [Fermilab] (ORCID:0000000342245164)↗

Advanced Moderator Material Handbook

High hydrogen density moderators such as metal hydrides are an important research topic within the DOE NE Microreactor Research, Development, and Deployment (RD&D) Program due to their ability to retain hydrogen to much higher temperatures than other hydrogenous media. This class of moderators, which includes yttrium dihydride (YH 2 ), thermalizes neutrons in the system such that the overall fuel mass or the required uranium enrichment in the system can be significantly reduced. Knowledge of material properties, both in the as-fabricated and irradiated state, are important to understanding moderator performance during steady-state and transient reactor operation. Provided in this document is the Advanced Moderator Material Handbook, which provides a detailed summary of the literature data on yttrium dihydride, thermomechanical and other property data, and a critical evaluation of that data. This handbook also provides a description of ongoing experiments to understand in-reactor performance, such as irradiations in ATR, as well as nuclear data from an integral critical experiment at NCERC. The majority of this report focuses on measured values but also includes some modeling results for comparison where applicable.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Future Automotive Systems Technology Simulator (FASTSim) Validation Report - 2021

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Future Automotive Systems Technology Simulator (FASTSim) captures the most important factors influencing vehicle power demands and performs large-scale fuel efficiency calculations very quickly. These features make FASTSim well suited to evaluate a representative distribution of real-world fuel efficiency over a large quantity of in-use driving profiles, which have become increasingly available in recent years owing to incorporation of Global Positioning System data collection into various travel surveys and studies. In addition, by being open source, computationally lightweight, freely available, and free from expensive third-party software requirements, analyses conducted using FASTSim may be easily replicated and critiqued in an open forum. This is highly desirable for situations in which technical experts seek to reach consensus over questions about what vehicle development plans or public interest strategies could maximize fuel savings and minimize adverse environmental impacts with an evolving vehicle fleet. While FASTSim continues to be refined and improved on an ongoing basis, this report compiles available runs using versions of the tool from the past few years to provide illustrative comparisons of the model results against measured data.

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS↗

Using machine learning to improve efficiency and accuracy of burnup measurements at PBR reactors [Slides]

The outline of the slides include: Motivations of the work; Modeling and simulation; Machine learning model; Results and comparison study with linear regression; and Conclusions. This work was done to help PBR designers and operators understand the burnup measurement better. We look forward to discussing the results in detail with industrial collaborators.

11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS↗

Advanced Moderator Material Handbook (FY22 Rev. 2)

High hydrogen density moderators such as metal hydrides are an important research topic within the DOE NE Microreactor Research, Development, and Deployment (RD&D) Program due to their ability to retain hydrogen to much higher temperatures than other hydrogenous media. This class of moderators, which includes yttrium dihydride (YH 2 ), thermalizes neutrons in the system such that the overall fuel mass or the required uranium enrichment in the system can be significantly reduced. Knowledge of material properties, both in the as-fabricated and irradiated state, are important to understanding moderator performance during steady-state and transient reactor operation. This document provides a detailed summary of the literature data on yttrium dihydride, thermomechanical and other property data, and a critical evaluation of that data. This handbook also provides a description of ongoing experiments to understand in-reactor performance, such as irradiations in ATR, as well as nuclear data from an integral critical experiment at NCERC. This report focuses on measured quantities but also includes some modeling results for comparison where applicable.

21 SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLANTS↗

AC Transit Fuel Cell Electric Bus Progress Report (Data Period Focus: Jan. 2020 through Dec. 2020) [Slides]

This report presents early results from a deployment of fuel cell electric buses (FCEBs) operated by Alameda Contra-Costa Transit (AC Transit) in the east bay area of California. The ten FCEBs, produced by New Flyer, feature an electric drive propulsion system powered by a Ballard fuel cell system. The project team is collaborating with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to evaluate the buses in revenue service. The goal of this evaluation is to compare the FCEB performance to that of conventional technology and to track progress over time toward meeting the technical targets set by DOE and the Department of Transportation (DOT). The FCEBs were delivered beginning in late-2019. The data period covers January 2020 through July 2020. NREL collects data on two different baseline bus fleets for comparison: five 2017 model year diesel buses and five 2016 model year diesel hybrid buses.

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION↗

Fast Adaptive Neural Control of Resonant Extraction at Fermilab

We present progress on the development of a machine learning (ML) regulation system for third-order resonant extraction of the beam delivered to the Mu2e experiment at Fermilab. We consider classical and ML-based controllers optimized on semi-analytic simulations and provide perfor- mance comparisons for several models. Additionally, we discuss the efficiency of each model in training, which has implications for future work on adaptive control. We also discuss progress on developing optimized implementations of ML models for edge-based inference.

Whitbeck, A. [Fermilab]↗

Scheduler Modeling of Distributed Energy Resources for Providing Ancillary Services

Distribution energy resources (DERs) have been integral components of modern power systems, and their capability to provide grid services has been widely studied. To promote the deployment of these resources in providing grid services in real-world utility operations, this paper proposes a day-ahead scheduler model for a distribution system connected DER plant. A certain amount of generation capacity of this DER plant is reserved for frequency services, and some ancillary services for the distribution system-including peak load reduction, voltage regulation, and power factor control-are integrated into the model. The model is tested on a real-world distribution system. From the simulation results, the energy and reserve schedule of the solar photovoltaic (PV) unit and battery energy storage system (BESS) can be determined, and voltage and power factor are well maintained. Additionally, in order to demonstrate the specific characteristics of the co-located and hybrid operation modes for the PV and BESS, these two modes are analyzed both theoretically and through real-time simulation. Simulation results show that most of PV's variability is transferred to the net power in the co-located mode, whereas it is transferred to the BESS in the hybrid mode. This proposed scheduler model and the comparison of co-located and hybrid modes can provide practical guidance for the applications of DER plant in the real-world utility.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Thermo-Mechanical Modeling and Evaluation of the Cracking Response of Additively Manufactured Monolithic SiC Lattice Structures Subjected to Laser Heating

Increasing operating temperatures of solar receivers is paramount to the efficiency of concentrated solar thermal (CST) and solar power (CSP) systems. Owing to its high temperature stability combined with excellent thermal and optical properties, SiC has been the material of choice for application in high-temperature solar receivers. The state-of-the-art SiC volumetric concentrating solar air receivers such as honeycomb design have been demonstrated in field tests to achieve exit air temperatures approaching 800oC. However, successful application of CST systems for decarbonization requires significant increase in temperature capability of SiC receiver technology. Supported by an award from the Solar Technology Office (SETO), US Department of Energy (DOE), GE Research in collaboration with Heliogen Holdings Inc, is engaged in the development of ultra-High Operating Temperature SiC-matrix Solar Thermal Air Receiver (HOTSSTAR) enabled by additive manufacturing. The program objective is to design and to demonstrate a techno-economically viable SiC air receiver technology to achieve exit air temperature of 1100oC for CST applications. This report summarizes the learnings of a computational study on additively manufactured SiC lattice structures subjected to laser heating. The results from this study aim to help guide the design of a SiC receiver through a better understanding of lattice structure geometric parameters and their implications on the cracking response of the structure. In the study, a heat flux was applied to the surface of a 2”-diameter cylindrical lattice structure to simulate a 4kW CO2 laser. The resulting temperature distribution was applied to a structural model to approximate the stress distribution within the lattice structure and a Weibull analysis was performed to gain insight into the probability of failure and to evaluate the cracking response of the structure. With this approach, the influence of lattice density on temperature, stress, and probability of failure was explored for two different lattice beam spacings. A discussion on modeling assumptions, a comparison with experimental results, and an evaluation of the lattice cracking response is provided.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗

Historical Emissions - no seasonality

Version of previously released anthropogenic SO2 and BC emissions data re-generated with no seasonality for use in the Emissions-MIP model inter-comparison project.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗

Historical Emissions - shipping emission perturbation data

Version of previously released anthropogenic SO2 emissions data re-generated with altered spatial distributions for shipping emissions for use in the Emissions-MIP model inter-comparison project. Also included are 30% and 60% global reductions in shipping SO2 emissions.

Ahsan, Hamza↗

Solid-State Transformation of an Additive Manufactured Inconel 625 Alloy at 700 °C

Inconel 625, a nickel-based superalloy, has drawn much attention in the emerging field of additive manufacturing (AM) because of its excellent weldability and resistance to hot cracking. The extreme processing condition of AM often introduces enormous residual stress (hundreds of MPa to GPa) in the as-fabricated parts, which requires stress-relief heat treatment to remove or reduce the internal stresses. Typical residual stress heat treatment for AM Inconel 625, conducted at 800 °C or 870 °C, introduces a substantial precipitation of the δ phase, a deleterious intermetallic phase. In this work, we used synchrotron-based in situ scattering and diffraction methods and ex situ electron microscopy to investigate the solid-state transformation of an AM Inconel 625 at 700 °C. Our results show that while the δ phase still precipitates from the matrix at this temperature, its precipitation rate and size at a given time are both smaller when compared with their counterparts during typical heat treatment temperatures of 800 °C and 870 °C. A comparison with thermodynamic modeling predictions elucidates these experimental findings. Our work provides the rigorous microstructural kinetics data required to explore the feasibility of a promising lower-temperature stress-relief heat treatment for AM Inconel 625. The combined methodology is readily extendable to investigate the solid-state transformation of other AM alloys.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Integrating Reanalysis and Satellite Cloud Information to Estimate Surface Downward Long-Wave Radiation

The estimation of downward long-wave radiation (DLR) at the surface is very important for the understanding of the Earth’s radiative budget with implications in surface–atmosphere exchanges, climate variability, and global warming. Theoretical radiative transfer and observationally based studies identify the crucial role of clouds in modulating the temporal and spatial variability of DLR. In this study, a new machine learning algorithm that uses multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS) and the combination of near-surface meteorological data with satellite cloud information is proposed. The new algorithm is compared with the current operational formulation used by the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) Satellite Application Facility on Land Surface Analysis (LSA-SAF). Both algorithms use near-surface temperature and dewpoint temperature along with total column water vapor from the latest European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) reanalysis ERA5 and satellite cloud information from the Meteosat Second Generation. The algorithms are trained and validated using both ECMWF-ERA5 and DLR acquired from 23 ground stations as part of the Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN) and the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility. Results show that the MARS algorithm generally improves DLR estimation in comparison with other model estimates, particularly when trained with observations. When considering all the validation data, root mean square errors (RMSEs) of 18.76, 23.55, and 22.08 W·m –2 are obtained for MARS, operational LSA-SAF, and ERA5, respectively. The added value of using the satellite cloud information is accessed by comparing with estimates driven by ERA5 total cloud cover, showing an increase of 17% of the RMSE. The consistency of MARS estimate is also tested against an independent dataset of 52 ground stations (from FLUXNET2015), further supporting the good performance of the proposed model.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

An Analysis of the Statistics and Systematics of Limb Anomaly Detections in HST/STIS Transit Images of Europa

Several recent studies derived the existence of plumes on Jupiter’s moon Europa. The only technique that provided multiple detections is the far-ultraviolet imaging observations of Europa in transit of Jupiter taken by the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). In this study, we reanalyze the three HST/STIS transit images in which Sparks et al. identified limb anomalies as evidence for Europa’s plume activity. After reproducing the results of Sparks et al., we find that positive outliers are similarly present in the images as the negative outliers that were attributed to plume absorption. A physical explanation for the positive outliers is missing. We then investigate the systematic uncertainties and statistics in the images and identify two factors that are crucial when searching for anomalies around the limb. One factor is the alignment between the actual and assumed locations of Europa on the detector. A misalignment introduces distorted statistics, most strongly affecting the limb above the darker trailing hemisphere where the plumes were detected. The second factor is a discrepancy between the observation and the model used for comparison, adding uncertainty in the statistics. When accounting for these two factors, the limb minima (and maxima) are consistent with random statistical occurrence in a sample size given by the number of pixels in the analyzed limb region. The plume candidate features in the three analyzed images can be explained by purely statistical fluctuations and do not provide evidence for absorption by plumes.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

The Origin of the Doppler Flip in HD 100546: A Large-scale Spiral Arm Generated by an Inner Binary Companion

Companions at subarcsecond separation from young stars are difficult to image. However, their presence can be inferred from the perturbations they create in the dust and gas of protoplanetary disks. Here we present a new interpretation of SPHERE polarized observations that reveal the previously detected inner spiral in the disk of HD 100546. The spiral coincides with a newly detected 12 CO inner spiral and the previously reported CO emission Doppler flip, which has been interpreted as the signature of an embedded protoplanet. Comparisons with hydrodynamical models indicate that this Doppler flip is instead the kinematic counterpart of the spiral, which is likely generated by an inner companion inside the disk cavity.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗